Off to ethics school for Cuomo staff

Governor issues order requiring staff, top officials to complete course

By RICK KARLIN Capitol bureau

Published 12:00 am, Monday, January 3, 2011

ALBANY -- Andrew Cuomo's staff is going to ethics school, and members will have to take a refresher course once every two years.

The governor issued an executive order on Sunday requiring his staff and other top state officials to complete a course offered by the Commission on Public Integrity that he said will be available by the end of the month and must be completed within 60 days.

Ethics training isn't necessarily a new concept, and the order had a degree of symbolism.

Top officials under the Paterson administration received ethics training as well, and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer put out an ethics order when he came into office that prohibited the acceptance of gifts to state employees and guarded against nepotism.

Now Cuomo is expanding on the ethics idea, requiring agency commissioners as well as their top lawyers and ethics officers to take the course within a two-month period and to sign a statement certifying that they have completed the training.

"Honor and integrity will be a hallmark of this administration, and I am confident that we have assembled a team that reflects that commitment," Cuomo said in issuing the order. "Nonetheless, it is imperative that chamber staff and other high-ranking government officials be versed in the ethics rules and regulations that apply to them. Top government employees should have no questions, no gray areas and no possibility of confusion regarding what is proper and what is not."

The Commission on Public Integrity offers a course which can be completed in person or online within several hours, said CPI spokesman Walter Ayres. The CPI, however, doesn't have the legal authority to force people to take the course.

As for training the governor's top officials, Ayres said, "We're happy to do that."

Good-government activists said they were heartened by Cuomo's order.

"If the governor is telling them to do it, it's a good thing," said Blair Horner, legislative director for NYPIRG, which has long called for tougher government ethics laws. "Clearly there have been enough problems that it makes sense."

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In a November 2009 report, the Citizens Union found that 14 lawmakers in the preceding decade left office due to ethics scandals or criminal charges.

And while Cuomo's order doesn't extend to legislators who are in a separate branch of government, state commissioners in the executive branch have also been tainted by scandals such as the 2009 guilty plea by former Health Commissioner Antonio Novello, who used employees as personal servants.

Policing legislative ethics is more complicated because that's outside the governor's control, although advocates have called for one umbrella agency to oversee all government ethics.

Lawmakers, for instance, have a Legislative Ethics Commission, although that organization has been criticized since members of the Legislature itself are among the members. Nor does that commission always agree with other proclamations.

The CPI, for instance, has been fining lobbying groups for putting on receptions for lawmakers where food, refreshments and drinks are served, since their rules say nothing more valuable than a cup of coffee should be offered to government officials. But the CPI doesn't oversee legislators and the Legislative Commission last year offered an unsigned advisory opinion telling lawmakers that it was OK to attend receptions.

Cuomo's move was the second executive order issued since he took office on Saturday, when he had the protective concrete "Jersey barriers" that partially blocked the entrance to the state Capitol removed. He said there was no need for the post-9/11 barriers and that taking them down would symbolize a new era of openness in state government.

In other developments, state agencies are continuing their turnover of commissioners with the new governor. One of the latest departures was that of Motor Vehicle Commissioner David Swarts, who was appointed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Swarts left office late last month, an official at the agency said.

In his homily, Albany Diocese Bishop Howard Hubbard compared the work of government to that of evangelizing, in that proponents seek to make change and create a better world.

"They over the next four years will be deeply immersed in the work of evangelism by bringing about the transformation of our state and our society and we assure them of our prayers, of our support and of our best wishes for challenges they will face," Hubbard said.

The bishop also spoke of what he termed "evangelical daring," or the need to be unafraid of mistakes.

"Making mistakes, being wrong, is all part of being human," said Hubbard, who evoked past leaders, including Lincoln, who preserved the Union; FDR, who started the New Deal; Eisenhower, who warned of the Military Industrial Complex; Martin Luther King, whose nonviolent protests overcame segregation and Mother Teresa, who comforted the destitute as those who have embraced "evangelical daring."

After the ceremony, Cuomo said he was impressed. "Beautiful. He really did a beautiful job...evangelical daring," the governor said outside the cathedral.

"The talk of transformation, I thought, was relevant. We were talking about that yesterday. But it was very inspirational. I was glad I could be there with my family and these young ladies (his daughters). They are going to be going back to school and we're going to getting back to work."

Following the Mass, Duffy, a former Rochester mayor and police chief, said, "One thing I took away is that perhaps if the churches were filled up there would be less problems in Albany."